Cheated
by Tristitia13
Summary: "But for some odd reason, as he watched Tsuna's still body lying among the white lilies in the coffin, and heard the priest drone on about how Tsuna was a great man, he felt really, really cheated." A one-shot about Yamamoto's thoughts on Tsuna's death.


This is set in a TYL! AU, where Tsuna actually dies by getting shot by a sniper instead of the whole Byakuran-meeting-thing. Also, it's not during the Millefiore arc, so Reborn, Yuni and the rest of the Arcobaleno are still alive, and they're all in their Adult forms. Mukuro is out of jail BTW. And Yamamoto is very, very OCC.

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><p>The funeral was held on a sunny day, in a beautiful little clearing in a forest in Vongola territory. The sun was shining brightly, the sky was blue, the fluffy white clouds drifted overhead, the birds were chirping, the animals were scurrying about, and the world was at peace. Everything about that day seemed perfect.<p>

Everything expect the black coffin resting in the middle of the clearing, and the man that was lying inside, body cushioned on a bed of white lilies. He was young, only in his early twenties, and had silky, soft brown locks that messily spiked up in every which direction, some of them framing his pale, feminine face. His large chocolate brown eyes were closed as if in a peaceful slumber, and pale pink lips were slightly parted, as if any minute they would open and let out the bubbly, cheerful laugh that warmed even the coldest souls.

But the people attending the funeral knew that he would never laugh again. Because Sawada Tsunayoshi was dead. He would never be coming back. And that broke them inside.

Gokudera was on his knees, clawing at the dark wood of the coffin with his fingernails. He was screaming incomprehensible things, and tears were streaming down his face, but there was a dull, empty look in his eyes that showed that he wasn't aware of any of his actions. The fierce Storm had died as soon as the Sky crumbled. Bianchi was at his side, trying to get her little brother to stop damaging the Tenth's resting place, but her hands shook as silent sobs wracked her frame.

Lambo was doing his best to cry silently and not bother anyone. It was ironic that the former crybaby whose wails were the loudest among the Guardians would be the one to try to hold it in. He was clinging tightly to I-Pin, who was sobbing into his shoulder. Fuuta, as the oldest of the trio, was trying to comfort both of them, but he too was almost at the breaking point. While trying to keep from crying, Fuuta was clenching his fists and biting his lip so tightly that bright scarlet was staining the green grass beneath him.

Kyoko, Haru, and Chrome had collapsed into heaps onto the ground, clinging tightly to each other and screaming and crying. Kyoko was wailing 'Why?' into the air, her hands scratching at her tear-stained face and leaving streaks of red. She was slowly going insane with grief. She and Tsuna were going to be married in two weeks' time, and yet now her beloved fiancé was lying unmoving among upon thousands of white lilies. Ryohei was trying his best to pull the girls to their feet and stop Kyoko from injuring herself, but he seemed to have lost all of his previous strength and energy. He seemed limp and drained, and his eyes had lost their former fire.

Hibari and Mukuro were nowhere to be seen. As soon as they had received news of Tsuna's death, the two violent Guardians had rushed off somewhere with murderous expressions on their faces and weapons out, ready to slaughter. There was no doubt, though, that Tsuna's assassins and all those related to them were definitely suffering the most painful deaths imaginable. The Cloud and Mist Guardians weren't ones for expressing sorrow, but they made up for it with copious amounts of anger, fury, and wrath.

Dino, Basil, and Iemitsu were also at the funeral. Nana had not been told of Tsuna's death. The poor woman probably wouldn't be able to handle such a shock. Iemitsu would break it gently to her later. That is, if he was able to handle the shock himself. The death of his only son made the once-proud CEDEF leader crumble and weep like a baby. Basil was not much better off than his boss, as Tsuna had been something of a brother to him. And the Bucking Horse had been left in an even more devastated condition. After Tsuna's death, Dino had even tried to quit his position as boss of the Cavallone Family, only to be stopped by an angry Reborn who had managed to beat some sense into him.

Ah, yes, Reborn. The Arcobaleno were all also present at the funeral. Most of them, having not known Tsuna as well, were in the back, looking sorrowful (well, no one was really sure in Mammon's case) but not crying. But 4 of them had joined the throng of close friends and family nearest to the coffin. Lal Mirch was glaring angrily at the deceased Decimo, yelling that he was a coward for trying to escape his duties by death. But tears prickled at the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill over, and she was clutching tightly at Colonello's hand. Colonello himself was gritting his teeth and murmering soft curses under his breath, also trying to hold back his tears. Yuni was freely weeping, tightly gripping the Vongola Sky Ring which had been entrusted to her after the Decimo's death. And finally, Reborn was standing directly in front of the coffin, as stiff as a statue. His fedora was shadowing his eyes, and there was no expression on his face. After all, hitmen didn't cry. But if one looked closely, they could detect a slight tremor shaking the tutor's lithe frame, as Reborn struggled to hold in all the emotions that he wasn't suppose to have come out.

The only Guardian who had not completely broken down yet was Yamamoto. He remained standing, his body frozen, not blinking, barely breathing. He too was weeping, but he had the oddest look on his face, as if he had completely become detached from everything around him. As if he was pondering something. And he was.

Yamamoto Takeshi felt cheated.

He really did. Really, it was unexpected. He was supposed to be feeling overwhelming grief, or guilt, or anger, as everyone did. He knew that all around him, the Guardians of the fallen Sky were breaking and shattering little by little.

Yamamoto was sure, though, that he was also grieving on the outside. He was vaguely aware of tears sliding down his face, but he didn't really comprehend them. It was more like he couldn't feel anything at all; he was completely numb. Instead, his brain was going at 100mph, shooting out random thought and philosophies like a sniper rifle. Like the one that had killed Tsuna. It was a strange sensation. Perhaps it was the shock that made him blank.

But for some odd reason, as he watched Tsuna's still body lying among the white lilies in the coffin, and heard the priest drone on about how Tsuna was a great man, he felt really, really cheated.

It wasn't like he felt that the enemy had cheated him of his best friend or anything like that. No, actually, he didn't feel that he himself had been cheated.

It was Tsuna. He felt that Tsuna had been cheated.

Sawada Tsunayoshi had been the Sky. He embraced all, accepted all, forgave all. He was kind, compassionate, loyal, merciful, and trusting. He was the one who had brought all of them together, the one who kept bonds strong, the one who loved everyone, friends and enemies alike.

He was a self-sacrificing idiot. Really, he was such a great man, such a good friend, such a kind boss, and yet he had gone and died. Just like that. It wasn't even a tragic and dramatic death. It had been quick, and he was dead before anyone could even comprehend what had happened.

He was the Sky, for God's sake! One would expect that the world would end, that the sun would explode, that space-time itself would disorientate when Sawada Tsunayoshi died.

But nothing happened. The world went on as usual. The sun rose and set, the flowers bloomed, the clouds drifted, the birds sang every morning, and the sky was blue. Pure blue. Just like always.

It was life-changing, Tsuna's death. And yet, nothing changed at all. The Guardians' worlds shattered and broke, and they felt that nothing would ever be the same again. And yet, everything was normal.

Because, in the end, Sawada Tsunayoshi was just another human. Another human had died. Just like thousands did every day. The world would not fall for just one human, even if he was a Mafia boss.

But, on the other hand, Tsuna had been so much more than just another human. He had been the center of their worlds. And when he died, they died too. But then again, they were also just more humans. In the end, their worlds died along with Tsuna, but the real world moved on in its daily routine.

Tsuna had died. And nothing changed.

It was unfair. Yamamoto felt that Tsuna had been cheated. Why was everything so _normal,_ after Tsuna's death? The heavens should mourn in his honor, and angels should sing ballads of his great deeds. And yet, all Tsuna had was a fancy coffin in the middle of the woods and a rambling old priest and a small group of friends and to mourn his passing to the other side.

And everything else was normal.

What was normal, anyway? At first school and baseball had been normal. He felt that his middle school life had been normal. And then he got pulled into the whole Mafia game. And after a while, that had felt normal too. Rain Guardian? Sure, normal. Getting sent to the future? Normal. Boxes, rings, and flames? Normal. Battles and killing? Normal.

Some things that he would never have dreamed of had become normal, routine. It was really amazing, how humans could adapt and evolve so easily. Yamamoto wondered if perhaps, after a while, Tsuna's death would become normal too. Would the thought of their best friend and boss left out here to rot in the woods also become normal?

But, Yamamoto supposed that perhaps, Tsuna would prefer something more normal over the end of the world for his funeral. Tsuna had always wanted normalcy in his life. He had wanted nothing more than an average and routine life, and then a normal death.

In fact, Tsuna had probably been the only normal person in their little gang. While everything else was a jumble of confusion, weirdness, and the oddest characters, Tsuna had remained normal, unchanged. He had been the one who kept all of them together and in check, the one who had brought them back to Earth when things got too hectic. The one who put a bit of sanity in their lives. But, it was also true that Tsuna was the cause of such a crazy mix of people and events. Perhaps he was just so normal that he attracted strange things to himself. Or maybe it Tsuna that was the strange one. Because after a while, the craziness and insanity of the Mafia world had become routine, and the strange individuals seemed commonplace. If Tsuna was the only normal one among all the weird people, then in reality he would be the one that was out of place, right? So maybe instead of being attracted to his normalcy, they were attracted to his uniqueness.

Yamamoto vaguely remembered a conversation that he, Gokudera, Ryohei, and Basil had had during the Ring Conflict with the Varia. Was what it again? Something along the lines of:

"The Tenth boss is a person so great that he has surpassed greatness. Only those who understand him will get it."

"Haha, Tsuna's really not that difficult to understand, is he? I'm not sure what it is about his greatness. Well, it's like, it's so obvious that it's easy to miss?"

"Well, in the beginning, there were times where I couldn't tell if Sawada was great or not. But, that's also because his ordinariness is simply not ordinary!"

That's right. Wasn't he one of the people who had originally said those words? That Tsuna's extraordinary ordinariness, his normalcy, was so great that it was easy to miss? If you got used to it, it would seem normal, like nothing special. And that's because being ordinary really shouldn't be anything great. But when it was gone, you realized how important it was. Normalcy was a thing sorely needed in the Mafia.

Yamamoto wondered if Tsuna was really being cheated after all. For such an ordinary person, who wanted nothing more than a normal life, maybe a normal death was the best parting gift after all. After all, Tsuna had definitely lived a less than normal life. Maybe having a funeral in such normal circumstances, on such a normal day, was the world's way of thanking him.

And then Yamamoto realized that maybe it wasn't Nature's gift to Tsuna, maybe it was Tsuna's gift to _them._ To his Guardians, his family, his friends. Tsuna's normalcy, his ordinariness had always been like a breath of fresh air for the Guardians after a day's worth of dealing with homicidal maniacs and the like. Now that Tsuna had died, no one would be getting that little bit of peace their boss always offered. The normalcy, the ordinary, the routine had been broken.

But perhaps, Tsuna was trying to tell them that he would always be with them. That he was in the air, in the sky, in the forest, in everything around them. He was in those little moments where everyone could just relax and laugh like ordinary people; he was in those peaceful times where easy conversations flowed like water; he was in those times when someone broke down and cried, cried like any ordinary person would. Like now. On this normal day, in these normal woods, at this normal funeral, where people cried like they normally should at the death of a loved one, Tsuna was there all around them, embracing them with the warmth of extraordinary ordinariness that only he possessed, letting them relax and be able to pour their hearts out and just _cry_.

Tsuna was dead, but he was still here. Yamamoto almost laughed. Really, he should have expected something like this from Tsuna, who always wanted to protect and comfort his friends and family, even after death. It was a normal action for him, yet so extraordinary at the same time.

Then Yamamoto wondered if he was going crazy. How had he reached such a conclusion in the end? He was just feeling that Tsuna had been cheated, and then suddenly he had this whole philosophical though process that somehow ended with the conclusion that Tsuna was still with them, keeping everything normal. Why was he even thinking about this? Yamamoto was never the type to use his brain, instead choosing to rely on his instincts and strength. No, it wasn't normal. Tsuna's death and funeral had cause him to think abnormal thoughts. An ordinary funeral, yet so extraordinary at the same time. Just like Tsuna.

Wiping the tears off his face, Yamamoto stepped up to the coffin and grinned shakily at Tsuna, who was peacefully sleeping. Bending down, he tucked a stray brown lock behind Tsuna's ear, and then leaned forward to whisper in his boss's ear.

"Sorry, Tsuna. Sorry for doubting you, and for doing some weird thinking at your funeral. But I've decided. From now on, I'll be just like I always was. I'll play baseball, and practice swordsmanship, and believe that the Shigure Soen Ryu is the greatest, most undefeatable style. I'll laugh, and smile, and be a baseball idiot. I'll try to calm Gokudera and Hibari down, and try to stop fights between the Guardians. I'll be my normal self, and until you get come back again, I'll keep everything just as it was for you. That way when you come back, everything will be normal, exactly how you like it."

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><p>Err… This was really confusing, even for me. I really had a hard time towards the end. I guess I'm just trying to convey that Tsuna is the only normal, sane one of the bunch, but there is so much weirdness that weirdness seems normal now, so Tsuna's ordinariness seems more extraordinary than anything else. That was my original message, but it somehow developed into this weird thing.<p>

Sorry if you're confused. Anyway, this isn't really an angsty kind of story, more like Yamamoto pondering over Tsuna. I just put the setting as a funeral because it fit more. I mean, I don't think that Yamamoto would just start thinking about this kind of stuff randomly, you know?

I was thinking about doing a chapter from each Guardian's POV about Tsuna's death, with one main focus. Yamamoto's was 'Normal', because Tsuna regards him as the most normal person among his Guardians. Gokudera's would probably be 'Loyal', Lambo's would be 'Cry', and etc. But then I decided I was too lazy and busy to make this a chapter fic, so you'll just have to be satisfied with a one-shot.

Anyways, I have a poll up for those of you who have read my 'Whispers of the Night' story. Please take it!

Sorry I haven't updated my other stories, I'm trying my best but my teachers are giving me hell.

For now, R&R everyone! I would appreciate any suggestions for this story, because I'm not very satisfied with how the ending turned out.


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